Durham Bulls pitcher Matt Andriese had lost seven pounds in five days due to a bout with strep throat, but that wasn’t the reason he didn’t win a fifth straight start Monday afternoon.

Instead, it was a sickly Bulls offense that allowed the Lehigh Valley IronPigs to avoid a four-game sweep with a 3-0 win at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Andriese pitched six shutout innings and has now thrown 19 straight scoreless innings, the longest streak for a Durham starter since Matt Moore in 2011.

But the Bulls (35-24) had only four hits against IronPigs starter Brad Lincoln (2-3) and two relievers and were shut out for the third time this season.

“It was a combination of (Lincoln) and us,” Durham manager Charlie Montoyo said. “Our approach was not very good today. He hung a couple of breaking balls and we didn’t take advantage of that early in the game.”

Mikie Mahtook had three of the Bulls’ four hits, including his International League-leading 20th double with one out in the sixth.

That was one of only two times the Bulls had a runner in scoring position. Vince Belnome walked and moved to second on a two-out single by catcher Curt Casali in the second inning, but Ray Olmedo popped out in foul territory to end the inning.

Durham’s offense wasted a gutsy performance by Andriese, who was limited to 77 pitches because of his illness. Andriese didn’t have his normal velocity, but he changed speeds and locations to keep batters off balance.

“I know I wasn’t going to feel 100 percent but I wanted to give whatever I had for as long as I’ve got,” Andriese said. “You’re not always going to feel the best. … You usually don’t get pulled after 77 pitches, but I told the pitching coach that I was pretty beat after the sixth inning. I was just happy to give the team six innings.”

The IronPigs (30-28) took advantage as soon as Andriese left the game. Braulio Lara (0-2) came in to start the seventh and walked Koyie Hill before giving up back-to-back doubles to Steve Susdorf and Ronny Cedeno. Cedeno later scored on a sac fly to put Lehigh Valley up 3-0.

That was plenty of support for Lincoln, the No. 4 overall pick in 2006 who has made 99 relief appearances in the majors since 2010.
The Bulls had won eight straight games against right-handed starters, scoring 45 runs in the

process. But Mahtook and Casali were the only Bulls to get hits on Monday as the Bulls failed to complete their first four-game sweep at the DBAP since May 2013 and their first sweep of Lehigh Valley since 2010.

“Andriese did his job,” Montoyo said. “Just our offense was not there today.”

NOTES — The Bulls start a four-game series with the Pawtucket Red Sox today at 7:05 p.m. Nathan Karns (3-2, 4.45), who has a 1.39 ERA over his last five starts, will take the mound for Durham against left-hander Chris Hernandez (2-5, 3.49).